(Kampala) At least three people were killed and 33 injured on Tuesday in the Ugandan capital Kampala in a double “suicide bombing” claimed by Islamic State.
In a statement broadcast on its Telegram channels, indicating that three suicide bombers were involved, ISIS claimed that the first attack targeted the police headquarters and that the second took place near the seat of the Parliament which was to meet.
The police had estimated earlier Tuesday that the attack was the work of another terrorist group of the Islamist movement, or “a local group linked to the ADF”, a Muslim rebellion active in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The government had already attributed two bomb attacks carried out at the end of October in Kampala to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group born in Uganda and which has taken root for more than 25 years in eastern DRC, where it is accused of numerous massacres of civilians.
The Islamic State designates the ADF as its “Province of Central Africa” (Iscap in English). In March, the United States officially declared them affiliated with ISIS.
The attacks have so far not been claimed, but “their characteristics match the ADF,” said police spokesman Fred Enanga.
The two explosions occurred three minutes apart, shortly after 10 a.m. local time (2 a.m. EST), in Kampala’s business district.
The first attack was carried out at a checkpoint near the police headquarters by a man carrying a bomb in a backpack. The second by two men “disguised as motorcycle taxis” near the entrance to Parliament, according to the police.
Counter-terrorist forces arrested a fourth suicide bomber and “recovered an unexploded home-made explosive device.” […] at home, ”said Fred Enanga.
21 of the 33 police officers are police officers
The Ugandan Red Cross said 21 of the 33 injured were police officers.
The attacks come three weeks after two other bomb attacks, one against a restaurant in the capital on October 23 claimed by Iscap and a suicide bombing carried out on a bus near Kampala two days later.
“Shredded” and “scattered” bodies
Tuesday’s attacks caused panic in the business district, where “shredded” and “scattered” bodies littered the ground, according to Mr. Enanga.
The mayor of Kampala, Salim Uhuru, was in a banking establishment near the police headquarters at the time of the explosion.
“It was so strong. I ran to the police station and saw a policeman I know dead on the ground. His body was scattered, ”he told AFP.
“There are people crying and the others are just trying to leave the area,” Kyle Spencer, executive director of an NGO, also told AFP.
Parliament canceled its scheduled session on Tuesday.
The vicinity of the Parliament was cordoned off by heavily armed soldiers and members of the forensic science, dressed in white, inspected the site for several hours.
“Jihadist influence”
These attacks “clearly show that groups linked to the ADF still have the will to carry out deadly attacks against easy targets with suicide bombers and homemade explosive devices,” said Fred Enanga.
Ugandan police arrested a number of suspected ADF members last month, claiming to suspect an attack on “major facilities”.
The ADF are considered by experts to be the deadliest of the 120 or so armed groups that roam eastern DRC, many of them the product of two regional wars fought a quarter of a century ago.
In April 2019, ISIS began claiming ADF attacks on social media.
“It is increasingly clear that the ADF are refocusing their attention on Uganda,” Kristof Titeca, a specialist in this armed group at the University of Antwerp, told AFP.
“This could be linked to an increased influence of jihadist elements within the ADF over the past two years,” he said.
In 2010, two bomb attacks, claimed by Somali Islamists Shabab, targeted supporters in Kampala attending the World Cup final, killing 76 people.
The attacks, the first by Somali insurgents outside Somalia, were seen as revenge after Uganda sent troops to the war-torn country as part of the Amisom mission. African Union intended to support the Somali authorities in the fight against the shebab.